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Author Topic: Projector bulb disposal? James Westbrook Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1133 From: Lubbock, Texas, Usa Registered: Mar 2006 posted 01-15-2008 01:28 AM                     That's the one!  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 01-15-2008 02:31 PM                     Dang, those were good lamphouses even though it cost a godzillion in electricity to run these things ... - Monte  |  IP: Logged Joe Elliott Master Film Handler Posts: 497 From: Port Orange, Fl USA Registered: Oct 2006 posted 01-15-2008 09:53 PM                     Back in 86, just before I had started at Truman Corners Cinema in KC, They had a bulb explode in the lamphouse about 1 hr into the show. The cooling fan had failed, and it overheated. It was a Cinemeccanica <sp> lamphouse with a 2k bulb. The front (small) reflector and the large rear reflector were both blown to bits. I saw pictures of the booth, and around that lamphouse it looked like it snowed inside the booth. There was a fine powder of glass all over the floor. The operator on duty said he had just been standing beside it one minute earlier, walked around the corner, and BOOM. He said it sounded like a stick of dynamite going off. He had heard a bulb or two explode before in his 20 yrs of projection service, but he said this one must have been worse because of the heat. He told this story as a warning to new projectionists to treat the bulbs with respect. When I started doing projection, I checked my picture and sound, and then got the heck away from the projector!!! lol.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 01-15-2008 11:07 PM                        quote: "Our lamphouses never explode!" That's funny! Talk about planting seeds of doubt about your competitors' newer-technology products. Strong, Kinoton, etc. need to come up with a slogan like that slamming D-Cinema projectors. Our projectors do not need someone with a BS in Computer Science to repair! No, not scary enough. Anyone?  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-16-2008 12:45 AM                     Send me a couple of those old, spent xenons and I'll take 'em out back and make a video to show you what it's like to blast them with a 54 caliber flintlock! I'd need at least two. One for the long shot and one for the close up. If anybody's got a high speed camera it'd be neat to make a super slo-mo of a xenon lamp being blasted by a 250 gr. lead ball!  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 01-16-2008 01:25 AM                     (..prob be more fun to hit them with a .58cal percussion cap with 750 grain bullet tamped hard down in with a triple load powder charge....pretty mean kick there )  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-16-2008 08:53 AM                     As odd as it may sound...back in the early days of Xenon lamphouses for cinema...the lamp explosions really DID blow the doors off of early lamphouses. They also were not ozone free and would give you headaches. Talk to some oldtimers (if they are still around) about when xenons FIRST started to make some headway into cinemas...they were not the same beasts you think of today. Ashcraft had something to their advertisement. The add does remind me of a similar Kelmar ad or statement about their automations being Y2K compliant (those that know how they work get the joke). There are plenty of ads one could run to put the fear of DCinema into the exhibitor if that was the goal with $$$ being the easiest pot shot.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-16-2008 09:09 AM                     Caplocks are for girls. In a .54 cal. T/C Renegade flintlock, a 550 gr. lead "Maxi-Ball" (conical lead bullet) with 120 grains of powder behind it leaves the muzzle at about 1300 fps with 2,200 ft./lb. of energy. Given favorable conditions, it can STILL be carrying 1/3 of that energy 100 yds. down range. (700 ft./lb.) That S.O.B. hits like a freight train! Problem is that accuracy suffers when you go to max loads. Under range conditions, from the bench, you'd be lucky to get a 3 inch group. That same gun will produce 1983 fps. @ 2003 ft./lb.at the muzzle and will carry 650 ft./lb. down range if you use a patched round ball over 120 grains of FFg black powder. That still packs quite a punch but, at max recommended load, you're not going to get best accuracy. If you drop your load down to 80 or 90 grains of FFg on that same patched round ball you only sacrifice about 200 fps. and about 500 lb (bringing you down to a still respectable 1700 fps @ 1500 ft./lb. with 500 ft/lb downrange) which is STILL capable of killing anything on this continent short of a grizzly bear. BUT... That small sacrifice in speed and energy will shrink your groups dramatically! There are guys who can shoot sub-M.O.A. groups at 100 yds with a patched round ball! (Minute of Angle = approx. 1 inch at 100 yds.) I've got a .22 cal rifle that will shoot 1/2 inch groups at 50 yds. without even trying and, if I really worked that baby up, I bet I could make a half-minute group. (A .22 cal bullet is only .223" in dia. A 1/2 MOA group is almost as small as the bullet!) The .22 is more than enough to do the job of busting a xenon. I have done that several times before. I have been meaning to make a "How-To" video on xenon lamp disposal for quite some time, now, but I don't work at the multiplex anymore so I can't get old bulbs like I used to. If I had a couple lamps to shoot at I'd make us a video. I can do it with the .22 cal target rifle but I think it'd be a whole lot more fun if I did it with the .58 cal smokepole! [ 01-16-2008, 10:41 AM: Message edited by: Randy Stankey ]  |  IP: Logged Bob Brown Expert Film Handler Posts: 146 From: Grand Rapids, MI Registered: Apr 2002 posted 10-14-2008 07:28 PM                        I am thinking of putting a display together, for safety reasons, I need a lamp that has been "de-gassed", is there a way that I can do this in a safe manner or do I only get these lamps from the manufacture.. I have seen displays from lamp manufactures, but I would think those come at a price. I am using Osram 7k lamps. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 10-14-2008 07:57 PM                        I usually just put the old xenon bulb back in the box it came in, tape the box closed, take it out into the parking lot and slam in down onto the ground. Then I pick up the box and check to make sure I can hear pieces rattle (confirming its destruction) and throw it away. Then I call the paving company to come and fill the newly created blast hole.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 10-15-2008 01:33 AM                     quote: Joe Redifer to come and fill the newly created blast hole. ..and recovering from sudden compression concussion when you pop a 7k bulb outside....Dang!  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 10-15-2008 03:29 AM                        I've been told stories about people who have had a bulb blow up near them and they had to have the skin of their chest literally peeled back at the hospital so the glass shards and whatnot could be removed. I've also heard stories of xenon explosions removing someone's face permanently. I love to tell these stories to people so they GTFO when I change a bulb.  |  IP: Logged Dennis Benjamin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1445 From: Denton, MD Registered: Feb 2002 posted 10-15-2008 09:17 AM                        Hey now that I am reading this post: Back in '91 (I think) I had a unskilled projectionist change a bulb in a 4K Xetron Lamphouse at the Edison Park 8 in Ft, Myers, Florida. About an hour into the show - the 4k lamp exploded and blew the doors open on the lamphouse. Needless to say - the reflector was taken out as well as some other important/expensive parts. I just remember seeing the doors partially mangled and didn't realize until that moment how powerful a 4k bulb exploding could be.  |  IP: Logged Jim Cassedy Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1661 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Dec 2006 posted 10-15-2008 09:40 AM                     Several months ago I posted pictures here of what happened to one of my lamphouses when a Xenon bulb exploded and totally pulverized a $1200 reflector too. Despite a thorough clean-up, I'm still finding small shards of glass in corners of the projection room. As for getting rid of old bulbs, I'm aware of at least one theater here in San Francisco whose preferred method of disposal is to put the bulb back in the original box and then put it behind the screen. I think they've been doing this since the 1970's. It's like a xenon museum back there! Today's Fun Foto: One day, somebody popped into the booth and surprised me in my Xenon-Bulb-Changing Suit Hey!- I've got Halloween party to go to in a couple of weeks. Instead of "Iron Man", maybe I should go as "Xenon Man"!  |  IP: Logged Galen Murphy-Fahlgren Master Film Handler Posts: 405 From: Canton, MI, USA Registered: Oct 2007 posted 10-15-2008 10:14 AM                     Seems like some people are making this a bigger thing than it is. I haven't destroyed any lamps at my new theater (2kw), but at my old theater, with 4-5kw lamps, I'd just stick it in the box without the protective cloth or cushioning and chuck it against the wall next to the dumpster. It was good catharsis, but nothing really special or terrifying that would require a big blast chamber. It rarely even visibly damaged the outside of the box.  |  IP: Logged

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